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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What is wrong with Granny?

418 replies

Jane958 · 14/06/2025 20:05

Both my grannies were Granny.
My mother was Granny.
My sister has chosen Nana, why?
Is this an indication of how far we are plummeting towards the bottom?

OP posts:
Gwenhwyfar · 15/06/2025 21:23

Jane958 · 14/06/2025 21:22

Well, if Granny was good enough for the Queen?
I will leave it there.
I did ask my sister why she didn't go for "Nonna" the Italian version of granny and she thought for a minute and said she had forgotten it was an option.
She is one of those inverted snobs, though :-)

Is she Italian???
Are you a snob?? Is this whole thread made up?

LaMarschallin · 15/06/2025 21:23

Is it as bad as using fish knives or calling napkins serviettes?

Can't be that bad surely.
Just don't serve them trifle for sweet.

Gwenhwyfar · 15/06/2025 21:28

LiteralLunatic · 15/06/2025 19:57

We had a great grandmama. I rather like grandmama, what’s the verdict on that? 😂

Even the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey isn't grandmama!

Thefsm · 15/06/2025 22:19

Wrf do you think is wrong with nana? I had a nana, nanny and granny. Nana was my favourite and will probably ly be the one I use myself although it has a lot of living up to. It’s all the glammas mummums that are a sign of society getting weirder

LiteralLunatic · 15/06/2025 22:27

Gwenhwyfar · 15/06/2025 21:28

Even the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey isn't grandmama!

Show quote history

Great grandmama wasn’t a countess but she once snubbed Queen Mary and refused to curtsy or speak to her, @Gwenhwyfar 😂 She was a toddler at the time, TBF.

If anyone were going to play my late great grandmother, the late great Maggie Smith would be able to do it to a T 😂

RosesAndHellebores · 15/06/2025 22:30

I have heard: nanny, nanna, nan, gran, grannie, grandma, grandmother, and marmar. I have never, ever heard nana. Is it pronounced like banana, or nanaah, as in mama and papa?

GetToHeaven · 15/06/2025 22:55

My mum is Granny, which is what I called her mum too.

canyouseemyhousefromhere · 15/06/2025 23:07

There is nothing wrong with
Granny
Grandma
Nanna
Nanny
Nan

In my family it has always been Nanna, Nan, Nanny. My mum was horrified when my sil referred to her as Grandma with my nephew. Mum insisted it was Nanna. My grandmother was always Nanna to me & im in my sixties.

My in-laws were Nonna & Nonno to my children as they were actually Italian.

You are coming across as rather snobby.

Starling7 · 15/06/2025 23:27

There is a Very funny sketch of grandmas shopping for their names - it won't let me post the link, but it comes up in google if you search the above.

Picklelily99 · 15/06/2025 23:29

Scarlettpixie · 15/06/2025 21:13

You sound a bit snobby. There is nothing wrong with nana - it is personal choice,

My mum and mum in law were both asked what they wanted to be called. My mum was grandma and my MIL grannie (it’s a bugger to find cards with ie on the end). I was happy they chose differently as it made it easier to refer to them and now they are no longer with us (mum died when DS was 7 and MIL when he was 3) we can still talk about them easily.

My mums mum died long before I was born and so I think of her as my mums mum. Same with her dad. My grandma and grandad were my dads parents (even though my grandma died when I was 2).

I prefer Aunty to Auntie; those cards are few and far between too!

LaMarschallin · 15/06/2025 23:38

Starling7 · 15/06/2025 23:27

There is a Very funny sketch of grandmas shopping for their names - it won't let me post the link, but it comes up in google if you search the above.

I looked that up and now I wish I'd been Nema(w) [sp?].
I used to have a gun license.

KeepDancing1 · 16/06/2025 00:08

socialdilemmawhattodo · 14/06/2025 20:29

But buying cards - finding (decent) Granny cards is very tricky. I know as I have been the one to look for them.

Card shops are a good indicator of which names are popular for grandparents in a given region. In Bristol and Bath, Nan, Nanna and Nanny are definitely the more popular choices, and there are always fewer cards available for Grandma/Granny/Gran.

(Mine was called Mammar by her eldest grandchildren, so there was never any chance of buying a card with her title on it, bless her!)

YourFairPlumPeer · 16/06/2025 00:13

Obviously entirely subjective but, to my ears, "Granny" is just an ugly-sounding word, just phonetically.

Sounds like it should be an adjective describing something unpleasant.

Snakebite61 · 16/06/2025 00:46

Jane958 · 14/06/2025 20:05

Both my grannies were Granny.
My mother was Granny.
My sister has chosen Nana, why?
Is this an indication of how far we are plummeting towards the bottom?

Always Nana with us.

T1Dmama · 16/06/2025 01:24

Jane958 · 14/06/2025 21:22

Well, if Granny was good enough for the Queen?
I will leave it there.
I did ask my sister why she didn't go for "Nonna" the Italian version of granny and she thought for a minute and said she had forgotten it was an option.
She is one of those inverted snobs, though :-)

What’s the Queen got to do it?
I can’t believe you’re saying nanna is somehow beneath Granny…
I had two Nanny’s growing up…
my nan decided that after 40 years of being a nanny / nan to her 7 grandchildren, that she wanted to be ‘Granny’ to her great grandchildren…. So my DD has a very elderly Granny, my mum is grandma, and my ex MIL is Nanny

CyanMaker · 16/06/2025 02:00

I'm from the U.S. My grandson calls me Mom Mom which is quite popular here.

FedupofArsenalgame · 16/06/2025 06:57

Gwenhwyfar · 15/06/2025 21:28

Even the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey isn't grandmama!

Show quote history

Heidi had grandmama in Frankfurt lol. Not heard it otherwise although I do like it

FluffyBenji23 · 16/06/2025 08:08

I'm Gummy - not sure 😊 why!

DisillusionedWithTheWorld · 16/06/2025 08:09

Granny? What is the world coming to!? It's grandma surely....

BoudiccaRuled · 16/06/2025 08:44

Bessica1970 · 14/06/2025 20:14

How is not wanting to be ‘granny’ plummeting to the bottom?

To me ‘grannies’ were old, retired, frail grandparents in children’s stories (I don’t ever remember meeting anyone known as granny in real life, maybe it’s a regional thing).

Grandmothers these days are more likely to be working, younger looking (procedures and hair dye) and in better health (HRT), so less likely to see themselves in that way.

I’m not sure it matters what they want to be called!

But grandmothers are older nowadays? Many women are having their first children in their 30s, by choice. Their own mother's are likely to be well into their 60s. That isn't young, and is very near to the govt retirement age.
Grandmothers in their 50s will very soon be a remnant of the past in Western culture.

KoiTetra · 16/06/2025 08:50

Seriously OP, either you have far too much time on your hands or are one of those people who isn't happy unless they have something to bitch and whine about.

Nana has been around for years, people can call themselves whatever they want and it makes no difference.

Unless your family is Italian why would your sister use Nonna rather than Nana?

Growing up I had Grandma and Nan.

My kids have Granny x2 and Nana x 1.

Each to their own.

You need to find a hobby!

BIossomtoes · 16/06/2025 08:54

BoudiccaRuled · 16/06/2025 08:44

But grandmothers are older nowadays? Many women are having their first children in their 30s, by choice. Their own mother's are likely to be well into their 60s. That isn't young, and is very near to the govt retirement age.
Grandmothers in their 50s will very soon be a remnant of the past in Western culture.

Show quote history

There will always be grannies across a spectrum of ages. My granny was 70 when I was born in 1953. My mum on the other hand was 56 when my son was born. There will always be women who have children in their 20s and younger grannies. It wouldn’t surprise me if the trend reverses at some point.

BoudiccaRuled · 16/06/2025 09:27

BIossomtoes · 16/06/2025 08:54

There will always be grannies across a spectrum of ages. My granny was 70 when I was born in 1953. My mum on the other hand was 56 when my son was born. There will always be women who have children in their 20s and younger grannies. It wouldn’t surprise me if the trend reverses at some point.

Show quote history

True. I had two "older parent" generations before me, and both my sibling and I chose to have children in our 20s as a result, bucking the trend in our peer groups. There are advantages and disadvantages to both scenarios.

Starling7 · 16/06/2025 09:36

LaMarschallin · 15/06/2025 23:38

I looked that up and now I wish I'd been Nema(w) [sp?].
I used to have a gun license.

Show quote history

I think it's MeeMaw 😅 sort of redneck country

TheBigFatMermaid · 16/06/2025 09:51

I'm 57 and I had a Nanna and a Granny.

I now have grandchildren and they have a Granny, Nanny and Nanna.

It really has always been like this. Just because your experience has only been one way doesn't mean it has always been that one way for everyone.

I'd say read more, talk to more people, get a bit more general life experience before jumping to "plummeting towards the bottom".